Independent Film

What happened to independent films over the years?  I vaguely remember when you could find good films about a variety of topics.  Now it seems every film is a somewhat mimic of what we've seen for years now.  Oooh quirky characters, misunderstood kids, lots of semi indie music.  Not bad topics but so many of them recycled and done poorly.  I always expect some redundancy but a lot of it hardly feels independent and relevant these days.  I could just be watching the wrong films.

Politics and the Media

I think one of the biggest problems with politics these days is the news media.  The folks that cover politics for the most part seem to be political junkies. If there is no news, these people will find some news and make it so.  They're political junkies, they NEEED something to examine.

Is Obama's image underexposed in some Clinton advertisement?  BREAKING NEWS  Ignore the fact that that has been a pretty common tactic in just about EVERY TV ad I've ever seen where an opponent is portrayed :P  Did some staffer say something mildly non PC?  BREAKING NEWS!   I doubt Hillary is some sort of closet clan member, and if she is I doubt we're going to find out now....  Also staffers, and even friends say stupid things ALL the time.  That's not news.  Nobody reads the interviews that staffers and friends do anyhow....  Just ask any Jr. High student, just because Suzy's friend said something doesn't mean Suzy believes it.

It all reminds me of the Dean Scream.  I never understood why that was said to be a big deal.  Dude made a noise.  I'll be that if you had 10 politicians do the same thing, 9 times there would be no mention of it, and the one other you'd get wall to wall political fanatic coverage.  It all seems so off topic (in terms of the actual issues facing the nation), random, and trivial.  I'd rather see the politicians covered as much as the actual race...   I actually saw a news story on the national news about Hillary's life growing up.  I didn't know much about her family, it was interesting.  Perhaps it wasn't a policy statement but it seemed a lot more relevant than the usual coverage.

Local News, Dear Gord

So in the last Husiary I complained that the local news media goes out of its way to take national news stories and somehow connect them with Minnesota to further drag out coverage.  Stuff like the academy awards and such.  Just a day or so later Sara Jane Olson gets released from jail and rearrested.  Oh goodie a couple more weeks of feeling sorry for the pipe bomb mother stories.  Worse yet they've got her local supporters in St. Paul.  Attention local news media, go back to if it bleeds it leads because currently the current standard of if it is shrill it leads is damn annoying.

Local Websites

There's a couple local websites that cover local events and such around the area but it seems all these hipster websites perpetually serve the 25 and under crowd and all have a good chunk of the following content that I'm tired of:

• Music columnists who write dense as hell articles about their favorite band(s).
• Numerous articles about where to get the best drink in town.  Inevitably this is just a list of the latest hot spots / trendy drings.  Often these articles totally disregard the insane prices of these drinks...
• A local sports enthusiast / writer who proves why we have professional sports writers because he's out of ideas by the second week of the season and keeps advocating trades with teams inside the same division.  Note: NEVER TRADE IN YOUR OWN DIVISION FOOLS!
• Sex columnist (not even a therapist certified by some questionable online school) who seems to think people read her articles because she's witty.  She's not, and she has nothing to say, but she does have a nice photograph of herself on every column she writes.
• Some gay dude whose blog is all about his boring life being gay with an constant undertone of oppression and posts how different he is from everyone else.  Despite the fact that he lives in a pretty darned gay friendly town, and lives in the gayest part of that town possible.  Also as far as I can tell he has few encounters with straight people.  Dude what?

- Very little that covers events that aren't already painfully advertised going on in the city.  Seriously we know there was is going to be another Prince concert, I'm not surfing some semi obscure local site for that.

It doesn't help that these sites all seem to be tied into some sort of network, the local news paper, or some weird omni media organization that seems to have a sort of "if you build it they will come" approach that leaves out much local flavor and frankly organization or focus that keeps these sites useful.

Dear Amazon MP3 Site

Dear Amazon MP3 Site,

I like DRM free music but I would like to make a few observations about the more negative aspects of your service that I encountered during my first purchase:

• First of all what the #### is the url for your site?  I search for it on google and I'm directed there but even the google link is some wonky URL.  www.amazon.com/MP3-Music-Download/b?ie=UTF8&node=163856011  WTF is that?  It should be amazon.com/music/ or amazon.com/MP3/  or amazon.com/digitalmusic/ or something sensible that then can direct me to whatever insane URLs you use.
• When buying music I DO NOT like having to install an application just to download it, but if I have to please when I'm surfing Firefox and install your application don't take control of my IE window and redirect it to your site without telling me and wiping out whatever I was doing in IE .... that's just rude.
• When you do leave firefox and take control of my IE window make sure you then prompt me to buy the song I clicked on . . .not some other song forcing me to cancel and go search for the damn music .... again.
• At least take the time to ASK me where I'd like my music stored the first time I DL it.  This would be in contrast to your current policy of having your application just start DLing in the worlds tiniest application down by my clock without much notice.  Then storing the music under a series of folders that actually mention the album name in two different ways, one nested in the other.
• Don't add the damn song to iTunes without asking me first.  That just makes me have to go hork with iTunes when I move the music to where it belongs.
• Finally, FOR THE LOVE OF GORD if you're going to sell me music make sure the files aren't in some sort of mentally challenged file format such as Track Number - Song Title . . . WTF did you actually just host up your own ancient Napster acquired music library?  Next thing I know it will be like Napster or Limewire all over again half the stuff I buy that sounds like Enya is attributed to Enya, but is certainly not Enya.  Not that I need to buy Enya or anything, I have tons of Enya, or at least that is what my pirated music indicates...

P.S. WTF Do I need a track number for?  It's digital music.  I bought it digitally . . . track number?  ####   #####   #####!

Sincerely,

duxup

Bitching and Moaning Ends (kinda)

MN Twins

The Twins began their season last night with a win against the Anaheim Angels of "Our road uniforms look like they're grimy".

Lots of young guys on the Twins this year.  They're certainly rebuilding in preparation for the 2010 opening of the new stadium.  Having said that a lot of these kids look promising, a lot more than the usual bunch of folks you've never heard of and at times almost feel sorry for.  Still lots of young guys means plenty of losses this year.  It's not like the old AL Central, Detroit (who needs a bullpen?) and Cleveland should be the top teams.  The White Sox can go back to being and acting like a second rate ball club, and we can all keep feeling sorry for KC fans, or in MN's case using their outdoor stadium as a second home and a good excuse for a road trip.

We had a bit of a snowstorm yesterday prompting plenty of what will we do with an outdoor stadium! crap in the papers.  Where were you people when they passed the hat to pay for the dang thing, let alone the roof? :P   Seriously, you're the newspaper, you didn't know?  Anyway they'll do what all northern teams should do.  Open up on the road for a bit, save those home games for nicer days, play a few day games until the kids get out of school, and move on with life.  It is just weather you dorks.  Whiny little...

Grenade!

You hear these stories now and then but damn ....

Jamaica

Jamaica has one of the region's highest murder rates, with 1,500 homicides in 2007 and 272 police killings.  Jebus!

Jamaca has 2.6 million people.  The Twin Cities area has 3.1 million.  I can't imagine 1,500 homicides and 272 police killings.  If we had that going on we'd be calling out the national guard and all sorts of ####.  DAMN.

Clear that Download History!

If you are going to do an interview and they're going to film your computer screen it is a good idea to clear that Firefox download history before the filming starts.

Lebanon

Is Lebanon still sitting around in a political stalemate?  That's crazy stuff man.